


Fake Your Death For Freedom

by i_grace3



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: America, Azkaban, Escape, F/F, F/M, Fake Character Death, Guitarist, Lesbians, M/M, MACUSA | Magical Congress of the United States of America, Mild Sexual Content, New York City, Post Cursed Child, Rock Band, Runaway, Vinyls, its longer and gayer than ever, lesbian couple, small tw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:22:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28759527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_grace3/pseuds/i_grace3
Summary: Delphini Lestrange escapes Azkaban prison in a desperate attempt for a fresh start. She fakes her own death leading the wizarding world to believe she is dead. Making a run to America, she blends into the New York society as if she had always been there, living a quiet, trouble-free life. Or so she thought.Minor trigger warning - mentions of death, implied abuse
Relationships: Delphi (Harry Potter) & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 6





	1. I'd prefer to do it my way

October 2021

Delphini Lestrange was currently sprinting through the woodland on the coast that Azkaban was off from. She wasn’t alone, no way would she be able to get out without an Aurors on her tail chasing behind her. That would be physically impossible. But she had a plan, and for that plan she needed a witness, more than one at that. And luckily, breaking out from Azkaban was the perfect way to get the attention of six Aurors. Six was enough to convince the world that she was dead. She had been planning this for months now, spending most of her days mapping out the plan in her mind. Having it in her head was much safer than having it on paper. If the paper fell into the wrong hands, especially a guard’s, she’d be done for. She knew the consequences if this didn’t work, but she was confident that it would, she had no doubt in herself this time. Turns out being on your own with nothing to do for weeks and weeks gives you time to devise things, planning every last move down to each miniscule detail. Delphi had even managed to take a wand from one of the guards and that took almost a week to plan on how she’d be able to do that. But she had the time, there was nothing else to do.   
Delphi didn’t want to dig herself into a deeper hole than she was already in with the ministry. But escaping Azkaban was obviously going to drop her even further down said hole. But she just wanted a fresh start, a clean slate. She just wanted to just live her life without the ministry breathing down her neck, she just wanted to be free as a bird without a care in the world. She never got to before, she was mistreated, manipulated and isolated from the rest of the world. She didn’t want to stir up trouble by making a second attempt to bring back her father. She didn’t want that at all. Her father, that was the last thing on her mind. She couldn’t care any less about him now. Delphi just wanted to live her life as a normal person. Euphemia had shut her off from any and all human contact as a child, Azkaban only made her relive the feeling of being trapped in the same room all day, every day slowly going insane from the noise of her thoughts.   
Once she turned fourteen however, Rudolphus Lestrange took her from Euphemia’s care into his own, taught her magic, taught her about everything, hell he even taught her the electric guitar. Despite his rather strong hatred of muggles, he enjoyed their music and played the guitar to a rather high level. With no actual, proper magical education, Delphi had managed to quickly pick up the thing and had a rather natural knack at it. Guitar slowly became her biggest interest alongside music. She’d play anytime that Rudolphus wasn’t teaching her magic and visit the local record shop. The boy who worked in there was also a wizard. His name was Teddy. The two got along rather well and she still kept in touch with him despite being in prison, letters exchanged on a weekly basis. And that was exactly who she was going to find once the first part of her plan was complete. He was the key to getting out of the country. He started working at the ministry with citizen records and passports a year or so ago. In fact, he was the one to complete Delphi’s after her arrest as the ministry had absolutely no record on her whatsoever. She needed him to be able to complete her plan and leave no trace of her at all, lead the ministry to a dead end. Which ironically, was where she was headed.   
Delphi felt the wind whistle past her ears as she continued on her sprint through the woods, the leaves crunching beneath her feet with every pounding step she took. The fresh sea air mixed with the scent of pine tree tasted good to her. It was divine, euphoric and she took in as much of it as she could, inhaling deeply. She felt the adrenaline pump through her veins for the first time in almost a year. And it felt good. It felt so fucking good. She was so invested in the feeling of freedom that she had completely forgotten she had Aurors behind her, chasing her through the woodland. She snapped out from her trance and heard the commotion of shouting from behind her, the cracking of spells she was now aware that were flying straight towards her. But she was nearing the cliff edge, the strip of blue and the drop of land coming closer and closer. She just needed to reach there and then she’d be able to complete the climax of her plan. The most important part of the entire thing, the bit that would determine the rest of it.  
Soon enough Delphi reached it, grinding to a halt only a handful of steps away from the cliff edge. She turned around, watching as the six Aurors edged closer and closer to her, completely surrounding her so that the only way out she had was down.   
“There’s no way out Lestrange.” One of them laughed at her. “Get your hands in the air.”  
She did so, putting them up painfully slowly, preparing herself inside for what she was about to do next.  
“Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”  
“Well, I’d prefer to do it my way.” Shed chuckle, a grin growing on her face as she stepped back further to the edge so that her heels were almost hanging over it, the soil crumbling beneath her soles. She saluted them with two fingers before taking a long, deep breath and letting herself fall backwards off the cliff.   
“No! What the hell!” She heard them shout as she began the fall. She watched as their faces peering over the clifftop move further and further away. The wind streaked through her hair and she grasped her wand, her stomach plummeting with her. And then she felt herself hit the water, the impact like hitting a brick wall and knocking out most of the air from her lungs and making her back sting painfully in the salt water. Delphi let herself sink for a few seconds in a moment of peace, the murky grey waters around her still and quiet, everything slowed down. And then she dissapparated, the waters she was submerged in vanishing as she felt herself squeezed through a tube, her stomach churning and whatever breath she still had, pushed out from her lung. And Delphi reappeared, stumbling to her feet, soaked to the very bone, shivering in the October wind.   
***  
The Aurors simply watched in shock at the girl who was currently falling to her death. She was insane. There was simply no way she could survive a fall from that height. They watched as she hit the sea, water spraying up and the girl vanishing. The group stared at each other in pure disbelief.   
“She’s crazy.” One of them stated, their mouth still hanging open, watching the waters to see if her body was to re-emerge. “She must be dead.”  
“There is no way she would survive that.” Another replied.   
“What do we do now?”  
“We wait.”  
“For what?”  
“See if her body comes back up, or any sign of life.”  
“What if she is alive?”  
“Well, I highly doubt she is, no one would survive that.”  
“Maybe she did?”  
“Are you an idiot? That’s a four and a half hundred foot drop! Why don’t you throw yourself off there and see what happens?”  
“I’d rather not. I do value my life.”  
“I thought so. So if she managed to survive that, then I’m a muggle.”  
After watching the waves for a few minutes, there was still no sign of the girl. There was no body, no air bubbles, no signs of life. All they could do was just presume that she was dead and that her body might wash up on the rocks soon, in a few days, few weeks, they couldn’t tell. What would they tell the ministry? That she escaped just to go and chuck herself off a cliff, knowing that she’d die? But they were too in shock to even think about it, they just simply couldn’t believe what they had just watched. That she had just simply thrown herself off the clifftop backwards without a second thought? Why the hell would anyone do that? But at least they had one less prisoner on their hands to worry about. And it was one more thing that the ministry wouldn’t be tangled up in the mess of. Delphini Lestrange would not be troubling them anymore. She was most definitely dead in a watery grave.  
And with that, still rather shaken by what they had just witnessed, the group dissapparated to the ministry to break the news of the girls rather shocking fate…


	2. Teddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delphi finds an old friend who helps her to erase herself from society. And return her belongings.

I reappear, stumbling to my feet, outside a house that looks very much familiar. The cold air bites at my face as I realise that I am soaked right through, my clothes clinging to my skin and my hair dripping wet. But I know who’s house this is and I hope they can give me some new clothes, or at least some to wear whilst these dry out. Fuck me that was a painful landing. My back still stings and I can still feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins. I don’t know how long it will take me to recover from that, I should probably go inside none the less. And so I approach the emerald green front door where I ring the bell. There is a small pause before I hear the door unlock from the other side and it creaks open. Teddy Lupin stands there, staring down at my rather sorry looking self in utter shock.   
“What- Delphi-“ He stammers on his words, his face stricken with surprise and confusion. “Delphi, I thought you were-“  
“Don’t ask questions, can I come in?” I smile at him, glad to see his stupid face stood there.  
“Yeah of course, you’re soaked. What the hell did you do?” He shows me in before shutting the door quickly behind him.   
“Lets just say Azkaban prison is not actually impossible to escape from.”  
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You swam back to shore?”  
“Yeah, obviously I would make it through the waters that multiple people have drowned in. No, I took the boat you idiot.”  
“Let me grab you a towel.” He walks away for a moment but still carries on the conversation from down the hall. “If you didn’t swim, then why the hell are you soaked through?”  
“I jumped off a cliff and faked my own death.”  
“Ha! As if!”  
“No, I’m serious.”  
Teddy comes back, holding a grey towel out to me, “Why the hell would you do that?”  
“So I can let everyone think I’m dead and live the rest of my life in peace without the ministry breathing down my back.” I take the towel and wrap it around me, following him into the sitting room where the fire is lit and warms the room pleasantly.  
“How will you do that?”  
“See that’s where you come in Teddy.”  
He stares at me again, knowing what I’m asking him to do. “Sit down.” We take a seat on the sofa in-front of the fire, Teddy taking a sip of tea which he had presumably been drinking before I arrived. “What do you need?”  
“Well, I need a place to crash for a few nights. And I can’t go to America without a passport.”  
“You can stay here that’s fine with me, Penny is away for the next week with work. You’ll need to change your name, Macusa have records on you.”  
“I know, I already have one in mind.”  
“Delphi, if they find out that you’re actually alive over there, or even here, do you know how much trouble we’ll both be in?”  
“I know, but it’s worked so far. I’m sure it’ll be fine. If we do it right, it’ll be like I never existed in the first place.”  
“Do you want some dry clothes first? I can get those dried out for you.”  
“That would be nice, thanks.”  
“Come on then you dipshit.”  
I follow him upstairs still with the towel wrapped around me. Despite his house being surprisingly warm, I am still frozen to the bone and I haven’t actually dried out whatsoever. Teddy digs around his wardrobe and pulls out a jumper, shirt and a pair of trousers for me. “You can use some of Penny’s stuff if you need it, she won’t notice, she’s blind as a bat.” He laughs, handing me the clothes. “Bathroom’s the room across from here.”  
“Thanks Teddy.” I smile, wandering into the bathroom and locking the door behind me. I exhale heavily, dumping the soaked towel onto the floor. I peel off the clothes I am in and throw them on the floor too in a soggy pile in the corner of the bathroom. I can’t quite believe it worked, I knew it would, but as I was stood at the cliff edge, I began to have second thoughts about it. What if I died as I hit the water? What if I drowned? What if I couldn’t apparate? God the trouble I’d be in if it didn’t go as smoothly as it did. I’d be fucked, completely and utterly fucked. Well, I’d either be dead, or be in solitary confinement back in Azkaban. To be entirely honest, it would probably all be much easier if I was dead. The next stage is the hardest, seeing if I can get away with a new name, identity, appearance in a brand new country. And waiting to see if the word thinks that I am dead. It should be in the papers tomorrow or a day or so from now. All I can do now is wait, wait to see if I am dead to the world. And for Teddy to get me that passport.   
I finish up changing, pulling the jumper over me. It’s a little big but comfortable. I take my hair down, brushing it through and letting it sit around my shoulders. I pick up the pile of soggy clothes which have left a small puddle on the floor that I dry up with the towel before I walk out and back downstairs. Teddy is sat by the fire, another cup of tea in hand and a plate of what looks like homemade bread.   
“Hang those over the fire railing if you want, they’ll dry off in no time.” He tells me and I drape them over the brass railing in-front of the fire, watching them drip water onto the floor, pooling into a little puddle. I take a seat beside him and pick up a slice of bread from the plate and eat it surprisingly quickly.   
“Bloody hell I was hungry.” I chuckle, “Do you mind if I have another?”  
“Not at all, I still have half a loaf in the kitchen.”  
“So, you probably have a few questions, do you not?”  
“How could you tell?” he laughs sarcastically, taking a sip of tea.  
“Where would you like me to start?”  
“I don’t want to know how, I just want to know why. Why did you break out?” His tone suddenly goes from a warm and cheery one to a straight-face serious one as he places his tea down on the table.  
“Teddy, I’ve known you for what? Eight years now?”  
“Yeah, it would be… Bloody hell that’s flown by…”  
“Hasn’t it just.” I chuckle lightly, “You know I didn’t exactly have- the best- childhood. I was shut away from the rest of the world until I was fourteen. And even then, the only time I really got to go out was when I visited you at the record shop, once a week every Saturday morning. And even after Rudolphus left me to fend for myself, I never had the chance to just- live.”  
“I know…”  
“But I screwed up and- it all went downhill from there. One mistake lead to another, and before I know it, I’ve lost all control and a child is dead because of me and I’m stuck in Azkaban. Without any hope of ever getting out.”  
“So it has nothing to do with your father this time?”  
“No. Not at all. He’s the last thing on my mind. I couldn’t give two shits about him. I never got to just- live, you know? And it just felt so unfair. They know about my childhood.”  
“You told them?”  
“I didn’t want to. But they kept trying to force it out of me. In the end they used Veratiserum. They thought I wanted power but that wasn’t what I wanted at all.”  
“They took me in for questioning too after your arrest. It’s not a- comfortable experience.”  
“Not at all. It was just interrogation after interrogation and eventually a trial which was over rather quickly.”  
“You fucked up Delphi.”  
“I know Teddy.” I blink back tears and push back the lump that is forming in my throat. “I didn’t want to you know?”  
“Want to what?”  
“Do what I did. I didn’t even know I had it in me. My own power terrified me. I acted out of fear, I had no control whatsoever. You know I still see that child in my dreams? I see the bolt of green that hits him in the chest. I can’t ever forgive myself for it.”  
Teddy sighs. “Come on, lets start those new documents before we make dinner.”  
***

I sit on the edge of Teddy’s desk as he writes out a new citizenship document for me and a types up a passport. “What was the name you wanted again?” he asks.  
“Sky Fellison. S-K-Y.” I spell it out for him, he mutters it as he types it out on his typewriter.  
“Any middle names? It will look more, let’s say, not fake.”  
“Grace, seems generic enough.”  
“Parents are Edward Fellison and Ayanna Fellison, maiden name Croft. They passed away last year, both had a bone disease.”  
“Are you trying to make it a sob story?”  
“No, but I can if you want.”  
“No thank you.”  
“Right, Hogwarts house was Ravenclaw, date of birth, 21st May 1998, half-blood, female, place of birth, Exmoor.”  
“Sounds good to me.”  
“All we need now is a photo.”  
“You didn’t tell me that we needed a photo.”  
“That’s because when I did yours last year the photo I was given was your mugshot.”  
“That was a dreadful photo…”  
“It’s a mugshot, it’s not meant to be pretty. Besides, I’ve seen worse.”  
“Oh that makes me feel so much better about myself, thanks.”  
“You’ve got to change your appearance somehow.”  
“I’ll cut and dye my hair, stick some glasses on or something and a shit tonne of makeup.”  
“What about your Azkaban number.”  
“Shit. I forgot about that.” It’s a small, permanent bunch of symbols, numbers and letters on the side of my neck just above my collar bone. It’s there to stay, I’ll have it with me for the rest of my life. “I’ve never heard of a spell that removes tattoos. Plus they aren’t designed to be hidden. Has Penny got any foundation?”  
“Plenty. We can cover over it up, easy enough. Com on, that’s done, let’s start this.”  
“Woohoo, make over.” I laugh.  
“Reminds me of when I had sleepovers with my muggle friends. They were all girls so I picked up a few tricks along the way.”  
“I can do eyeliner and that’s about it. Depends if I can even still do that.”  
We wander into the bathroom and I stand in-front of the mirror. Bloody hell we’ve got some work to do. My eyes are dark, my cheeks are hollow and my skin is as pale as milk. I knew Azkaban took it’s toll on people but I didn’t realise just how much it could in such a short time. I hardly even recognise myself now. My hair is back to its natural dirty blonde, the blue tips have faded completely and I just look- lifeless… “I know people say that you come out a different person to what you went in as but I didn’t know it happened that fast.” I say, dryly.   
“They say you mother had naturally beauty before she went in there. She came out like you.” Teddy takes out a pair of scissors and a hairbrush.  
“I’ve seen portraits. You can definitely tell she was my mother.”  
“Right, dye or cut first?”  
“Let’s cut it and get the worst over and done with.”  
“How long do you want it?”  
“Like just above my shoulder would be good.”  
“Are you sure? That’s like seven or eight inches off.”  
“Have you forgotten that I’m not Delphi anymore?”  
“Not until we get this photo you aren’t.”   
And then I hear Teddy take the first snip of hair, the scissors cutting through it. I tell him to go slightly longer at first so we can always cut it shorter, so we go just below my shoulders at first. I watch as my hair falls to the bathroom floor slowly. It feels good, light, liberating almost. He’s not doing a bad job I must admit. He finishes up after about twenty minutes, neatening up the edges and giving it a final brush through. I run my fingers through it and smile rather widely.  
“That’s not too bad.” He laughs.  
“Not too bad indeed I must admit.”   
“Not too shabby.”  
“I like it, it feels quite freeing.”  
“I can understand where you’re coming from. Now, I know a spell that dyes your hair.”  
“Yep, used it.”  
“Thought you might have at some point. I mean, it’s you.”  
“Oh shut up!”  
He puts down the scissors and takes his wand in their place, pointing it at my freshy cut hair before saying the incantation and I watch as my hair fades to a soft chestnut sort of colour. “Wow. That looks alright too.”  
“It suits you. Stick it in a side parting though and we’ll get that fringe cut back.”  
“I think I’ll leave the fringe.”  
“Shit, I just remembered.”  
“What?”  
“The ministry made me hang on to all your stuff after they cleared your room at St Oswald’s.”  
“They did? Why?”  
“Because I was the closest family member you had or something. Plus you’re my friend. I completely forgot as I just shoved it in the attic as I knew you probably wouldn’t need it for a while.”  
“You wouldn’t mind if we got it out?”  
“Of course not, it’s yours. If we’re finished here we can go and grab it.”  
“Let me do this makeup and then we’ll do it.”  
***   
Teddy pulls down the ladder to the attic and muttering “Lumos,” so that the tip of his wand glows a soft blue. I do the same and follow him up the ladder into the attic. It’s absolutely freezing up here and I can feel the draft on the back of my neck. It’s an absolute mess with stacks of paper, books, boxes and Christmas decorations.  
“Sorry about the mess.” He laughs, looking around for my stuff.   
“It’s alright, I’ve seen worse.”  
“Aha! Here it is.” He pushes two large cardboard boxes, a trunk and a familiar looking shaped case over to me where I am stood in the trapdoor opening. “There’s not much, I don’t know if the Ministry took any of it but this is all I got.”  
“No, that’s definitely most of it. If not all of it.”   
“What even is it all?”  
“Clothes, records mostly. I have no idea what else.”  
“Well, lets bring them down and find out. Then I’ll help you pack them up for the trip over.”  
“It’ll be easy enough, there’s hardly anything.” I step down the ladder and cast a charm onto the boxes so they float down carefully followed by the trunk and the case. Teddy clambers back down, closing up the trapdoor.   
“Come on then, open them up.”  
I start with the trunk, unclipping the clasps and lifting up the lid. Inside is as much of a mess as the attic it came from. It looks like everything was just thrown in there in a rush, notebooks, ink, jewellery, my wand surprisingly, keys, make up, money and a cheque book, a few random clothes and a pair of boots, nothing really of interest. But at least I have my Gringotts’s vault key. That’s one of the most important things I need. You can use them on muggle cash machines to take out money which is always handy I guess. I move onto the second box which is just clothes and shoes. Nothing really exciting as well but it’s comforting. I dig around for a bit and to be honest, they actually made a bit of effort to fold them and I find surprisingly more clothes in there than I expect. The next box I have a good feeling about and I open it up eagerly.   
“My records!” I smile, greeted by the sight of my record collection.   
“No way!” Teddy laughs and we flick through them and I count them.   
“There all still there.” I double check to see if my copy of MCR’s ‘I bought you my bullets, you bought me your love” is still there. It was the most expensive and hardest one to find out of all the records I own and if it had been taken, I’d be so angry. It took me over a year to find it. Beside them is my record player and another box. Out of curiosity, I take it out and it’s rather heavy.   
“What’s that?” Teddy asks.   
“I think it’s my amp.” I open it up and indeed it is. My amp and my leads are in there in a tangled mess. “Then that means this is should be what I think it is…” I pull the case over to me and undo the claps, blowing the dust off from the top. I open it up and inside is my guitar, a layer of dust covering it.   
“That’s one nice guitar.” Teddy stares at it.   
“She is a beauty. Fender Stratocaster. Classic.” The black body of it reflects the light despite the layer of dust over it. “God knows how out of tune it is now. I’ll have to change the strings too, they needed it anyway and being sat in there definitely hasn’t done them any good. She needs some TLC…” I run my finger across the strings. Oh how I’ve missed the blisters and the dents in my fingers.   
“Right, what left is there to do?” Teddy asks.  
“Um, finish the passport, book a flight to America and find an apartment. Do you have a laptop?”  
“I sure do. I’ll book them for you, I have a muggle debit card.”  
“I’ll pay you back I promise.”  
“I know you will, don’t worry.”  
“I feel awful if I don’t.”  
Soon enough, I have plane tickets for two days’ time to New York, an apartment which Teddy’s mate owns in Murray Hill, Manhattan and a lot of money owed to Teddy. “Could I write you a cheque? We can change the date to summer last year so they won’t get suspicious.”  
“We can try, I’ll take it into Gringotts soon as I can and if it doesn’t work, we can figure something out at a later date. Even if it means flying over there.”  
“No, don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get it. Thank you for all this by the way. I really appreciate it.”  
“No worries Delphi. That’s what friends are for.”  
“If there’s anything I can do for you-“  
“No, it’s alright. Honestly, it’s been fun.”  
“The flight is definitely on Wednesday right?”  
“Yes, ten in the morning and you’ll pick up your apartment keys Thursday afternoon. In the mean-time you’ll have to get a hotel room for a night or so.”   
“I’m sure that’s easy enough to find.”


End file.
